


then fall into me

by Onlymystory



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Backstory, Falling In Love, Getting Together, M/M, a little bit of meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymystory/pseuds/Onlymystory
Summary: It is assumed by a great many people who know the legends (and by the few people who know the men), that Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicolo di Genova went from fighting to fucking in the span of a breath. That one of the great untold love stories of our time and many times before our own has been true and lasting and certain since the moment these two men laid down their swords and ceased fighting each other.This of course is an understandable assumption.It is also, of course, completely wrong.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 23
Kudos: 287





	then fall into me

**Author's Note:**

> There are literally 6 different tabs of Old Guard fics in various progress on my computer right now and one of the docs is a list with a dozen ideas so I’m gonna be here a while.  
> I have not read the comics. This is probably somewhere between fic and meta but it’s the first one that my mind saw all the way through so here you go.

It is assumed by a great many people who know the legends (and by the few people who know the men), that Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicolo di Genova went from fighting to fucking in the span of a breath. That one of the great untold love stories of our time and many times before our own has been true and lasting and certain since the moment these two men laid down their swords and ceased fighting each other. 

This of course is an understandable assumption.

It is also, of course, completely wrong.

There are also assumptions that each immortal is thrown by the onset of their immortality. For who could not be overwhelmed at death’s hand reaching out, taking a firm grasp upon your soul, and then somehow, inexplicably, letting you slip away?

For Booker and later, for Nile, such assumptions are quite accurate. These two come from a world of men, a world of science, and surety on things seen. One does not escape death. 

But for Andromache, for Quynh, for Lykon...for them these are also quite untrue. They were granted immortality in worlds that honored the gods and so honored them. It would take centuries for such ideals to be burned out of them by the harsh realities of a world that continues on.

Nicolo killed a man with his own dying breath and woke again on the same battlefield. For surely God had smiled upon him and was not yet willing that he should give up the holy fight. 

That the man he killed also woke again was troubling but not as shocking for Nicolo as it might be for you or I. The church warned of the powers of the forces of darkness and so he believed that just as his Lord gave him renewed vigor, so did the demons grant strength to his opponent.

Yusuf, for his part, had considered the situation and come to much the same conclusion. Though of course, he was of the firm belief that Allah granted such favor to him, while the devil himself must be keeping this invader alive.

And so for some months, they carried on this tradition of dealing deadly blows with righteous fervor, each seeing their failure as a test they must continue to take.

Eventually, as the story goes, the two men stopped fighting each other. They left the battlefield together, not, as some believe, because they had fallen in love in the midst of the fighting or because of a belief in something new. They left together because neither knew quite where to go or what had caused this change in them. They left together because they couldn’t go home and it made sense to fall into step alongside each other. They left together not because they made the choice to do so, but because the thought of leaving apart never crossed their minds.

This is where many believe the love story starts. 

Perhaps it is. 

After all, it is the author who chooses the beginning of a story, even if we cannot see it as such. 

But for Nicolo di Genova, he saw it as something else. He saw that whether the Lord’s favor shone upon him or not, he could not call the repetitive killing of the face he knew better than his own a righteous deed.

For Yusuf Al-Kaysani, when he was not dying, he was seeing the eyes of Nicolo, seeing the pain in them, and the depths of such feelings haunted him. He wanted to know the man he had been killing. And so when Nicolo chose a path, Yusuf fell alongside him.

* * *

As months and years passed, they would continue to fall into step with each other. Then one day, Yusuf will say something to Nicolo, because of course, he learned to speak Nicolo’s language while Nicolo was still marveling over small phrases. Nicolo will smile, a soft smile that Yusuf has learned only appears for him.

He will lean in for a kiss, a kiss that is as surprising as it is entirely expected.

It’s Nicolo who will pull at Yusuf’s clothes, who will tug at his hair, who will push and pull until they fall into bed because Yusuf is declarative but Nicolo is decisive.

It’s Nicolo who will fall in love first but Yusuf who will say the words aloud. 

They would take their time falling out of their old selves and into each other until they loved so completely that to look at one was to see the other.

**Author's Note:**

> I will take all the prompts for these two. All the prompts. I just want all the things. Also gimme prompts for Nile/Andy because yes please.


End file.
